Strange Bedfellows
by Duck Life
Summary: Kaz wakes up to the sight of Bree climbing into his bed. "Can I sleep here tonight?"


**A/N: I'm really not a huge Braz shipper but I couldn't get this idea out of my head, so here it is. Featuring not-so-platonic bed sharing.**

* * *

Kaz's dream about wandering through Hershey Park collecting chocolate bars gets interrupted when someone with cold, cold toes worms their way under his covers. He jerks awake, blinking rapidly and trying to figure out what's going on in the dim glow from Oliver's nightlight.

"Bree?" She tucked herself in right beside him. "Uh… pretty girl in my bed. So that means… oh, I see what happened. You got the wrong bed, speed feet. Oliver's over there." He points to his left.

Bree just rolls her eyes. "I'm actually here for Chase."

"Oh!" Kaz raises his eyebrows. "Oh. So that's how it is in your family."

She kicks him in the shin and _seriously_ , she needs to get her circulation checked. Her toes feel like tiny icicles. "Not like _that_ ," she hisses. "Pervert."

"Hey, you're the one who climbed into my bed."

"There's no effed-up Flowers in the Attic thing going on with me and my brother," Bree says. "It's just… my whole entire life, I've always slept with Chase on my right side. Except for, like, one night when I tried to move upstairs, and that was a disaster because Tasha wouldn't leave me alone because that woman has no concept of privacy, I mean seriously, one time she even… wait, sorry, getting off track. The point is, now when I'm trying to sleep, I look over on my right and there's just a wall there. And it feels wrong." She sighs. "It's bad enough being away from Adam and Leo, but now most nights I can't even sleep because I keep jerking awake, thinking, 'Where's Chase?'"

"I could draw you a picture of him to tape on the wall," Kaz suggests. Bree rolls over in the bed so she can face him in order to give him a proper glare. "I guess I just don't get it. Growing up I _always_ had to share a room with my brothers. Now? It's so awesome being roommates with people that I actually like."

"Yeah, well I like Skylar," Bree explains, and he can smell her minty toothpaste breath puff into his face. "I like being her roommate. It's just that when the lights go off and she starts snoring like a freight train… I miss my family. I miss my home."

Kaz stretches out as much as he can with Bree taking up half the space. Good thing he's always been a compact sleeper. "I… guess that makes sense," he says.

"No, it doesn't, it's stupid," Bree says, lolling her head back on the pillow. She's completely occupying his personal space bubble and he's acutely aware of the Tecton pajamas he's wearing. "I'm supposed to be an adult. I should be able to get a night of sleep without panicking about my little brother."

"Hey, we're all 'supposed to be' adults," Kaz points out. "But Ollie-Pop over there needs a nightlight to sleep. And your brother listens to Neil Degrasse Tyson on tape to get him to conk out. Everybody has things they need to fall asleep."

"Oh yeah?" Bree says. "What's yours?"

Kaz flushes red, but she's already in bed with him and she's already spotted the superhero pajamas, so what the hell else does he have to lose? "This guy," he says, pulling a teddy bear in a cape out from under the blanket. "Superbear."

"Superbear." She looks at the ratty old stuffed animal incredulously. "Really?"

"Dude, you can't judge me, you want to sleep with your brother."

"I want to sleep _next to_ my brother."

"Whatever," Kaz says, whisper-laughing. "And yes, Superbear has been with me for as long as I can remember. I don't sleep without him, and I'm not ashamed of that. Like I said. Everybody's got stuff."

Bree sighs, fiddling with a loose thread on Kaz's blanket. Finally, in a small voice, she asks, "Can… can I sleep in here tonight?"

Kaz runs that suggestion through all of his decision-making filters, mainly "Will it piss off Oliver?" It won't, he decides, but it might piss off Chase. He can picture it now, Chase getting his molecular kinesis mojo on and throwing Kaz across the room, _How dare you spoon my sister right under my nose?_ , blah blah blah. Might even get that infamous Commando App in action, and Kaz isn't here for that.

"Can you turn invisible before Chase wakes up?"

"Yep."

"Okay," Kaz says, sliding back in the bed to give her more room. "Wait, this isn't gonna fritz up your bionics, is it? I don't wanna wake up with skid marks on the sheets." She giggles. "Not _those_ kind of… you know what I mean!"

"No, it's fine," she says. "I can go a night or two out of my capsule."

"Alright then," Kaz says as she flips around again to face Chase's capsule. "Goodnight, Bree." He flips too so he's facing Oliver, and he hugs Superbear close to his chest.

"Goodnight, Kaz," she says.

* * *

He doesn't know how much time passes after that, but he's having another dream, this one about flying above Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, when he suddenly feels Bree whack him in the face. "Ow!" he whispers, snapping to attention. "What the hell?"

She doesn't respond; she's still flailing around in the bed, sheets tangled around her body, arms going wild. At first he thinks she was wrong about her bionics, and she's glitching, but then he realizes she's crying.

"Hey," he says softly, shaking Bree's shoulder. "Hey. Speed feet. Get up." No response; she whimpers quietly in her sleep. "Bree. Bree!" He shakes her harder and finally she startles awake.

"Oh!" She looks around wildly before settling, realizing it was just a nightmare. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry. I was dreaming."

"Yeah, I got that," Kaz says, staring at her. "What about?"

Bree just shrugs and shakes her head, eyes darting away. "Nothing," she says. "I mean, I don't remember. Go back to sleep." She turns over again, looking away from him.

Kaz weighs his options. Going back to sleep would be easy, and he's tired as all get out, but Bree sounded so _sad_. He's helped Oliver get over nightmares before. It's gotta be similar for Bree, right? "Hey," he says, lightly putting a hand on her shoulder. "You can tell me. I'm not gonna laugh or anything. I already showed you my teddy bear."

She lets out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "It's nothing," she says again.

"Bree."

"Okay, okay," she says, wiping at her eyes in the dark. She doesn't turn back around to face him, but she does start talking. "Back… back before, there was this guy. Victor Krane. He wanted to kill me and Adam and Chase, and Leo too… and he came really, really close a few times. And whenever we thought we got rid of him, he kept coming back…" She shudders and it shakes the whole mattress. "He's just… he's a difficult person to get out of your head."

"That sucks," Kaz says, unsure of what else to say. It must have worked, though, because Bree laughs a little. "What was the dream about?"

Bree sighs. "He came back," she says. "And he killed… everyone. Chase and Adam and Leo, and then you and Oliver and Skylar."

"Rude," Kaz says. "I didn't even know this guy, and he dream-kills me? That's not fair."

Bree laughs again. "Well, it wasn't real," she says, and then quietly again to herself, "It wasn't real."

"Go back to sleep," Kaz suggests, patting her awkwardly on her shoulder. "Try to dream about normal things. Like going to school in your underwear or falling through a wormhole."

"I'll try," she says, snuggling down into the mattress and letting out a sleepy sigh. "Goodnight, Kaz," she says for the second time. "And… thanks."

* * *

The next day, Skylar insists on dragging everyone to the Centium City fair down in the park. They've got booths set up, games, kettle corn, cotton candy, a Ferris wheel, even bumper cars. Chase reels off statistics about the dangers of fair rides as the five of them wander through the setup.

"Hey," Bree says, skidding to a stop and tugging on Kaz's sleeve. "You wanna play balloon darts?"

"Always." Kaz and Bree split off from the group and head to the game booth, where a man with a big handlebar mustache sells Kaz three darts for five dollars. "Watch this," he says, and he bullseyes three balloons all in a line.

"Wow," Bree says, honestly impressed.

"Right?!" Kaz collects his prize, a fake rubber snake, and then looks at Bree. "Okay, you're up."

Bree slaps her five dollars down on the counter and takes the darts. She levels the first one, aims it, and lets it fly. A blue balloon near the top bursts open with a loud pop. She throws the second one, but it misses, embedding itself in a blank space on the board.

"All you need is to pop one more balloon to win a prize," handlebar mustache guy tells her.

"You got this," Kaz tells her, drawing close to her side. "You see that red balloon in the middle?"

"Yeah?"

"Pretend it's Victor Krane."

Bree throws the dart and pops the balloon.

* * *

The prize she picks out is a small teddy bear with a pink tutu. "It's Superbearette," she tells Kaz who shakes his head.

"I regret telling you about Superbear."

"I don't," she says, squeezing Superbearette close to her chest as she and Kaz run to catch up with their friends.

* * *

That night, Bree climbs into bed with Kaz again. "What're you doing?" he mumbles, rolling over to face her. "I thought you didn't need to sleep in the same room as Chase anymore. Now you have Superbearette."

"Well, maybe I'm not here for Chase," she says, eyes wide and mischievous. "Maybe I'm here for you."

Kaz blinks. "Neat," he says. "I-I mean, are you? Here for me?"

"Yes, Kaz."

"Okay," he says. "Neat."

"Is that alright?" she asks, tugging his blanket around her shoulders.

"Yeah, it's great," Kaz says, but then he feels her freezing feet on his leg. "But you _gotta_ go put on some socks."


End file.
